fig leaves

The newsletter of the Fire Information Group UK (FIGUK)

www.figuk.org.uk

No. 29
November 2004

Edited by Sheila Pantry, OBE
Sheila Pantry Associates Ltd

This Newsletter contains:

• Summary of the FIGUK Meeting held on 22 September 2004
• News from around the World

FIGUK website www.figuk.org.uk... please help to promote FIGUK whenever you can....

Summary of the FIG (UK) Meeting on Wednesday, 22 September 2004 held at LFEPA HQ

Present:

Stephen Lloyd	BSRIA
Sheila Pantry	Sheila Pantry Associates Ltd
Sally Walsh	Burgoyne and Partners
Penny Morgan	IfFI Ltd
Amanda Collicut	Fire Service College
Marion Barnes	Fire Service College
John Roy	IHS Technical Index
Nigel Herring	Castella Stanger
Norman Simmonds	HMFSI - ODPM
Jim Mann	HMFSI - ODPM
Wendy Ross	Royal Berkshire Fire and Rescue Service
Nsekanji Pelekamoyo	LFEPA
Monique Barden	LFEPA

Apologies:

Sue Harris
Margaret Fuller	Fire Service College
Roger Berrett
Lis Riley	Hawkins & Associates
Tony Timmons	ODPM
Richard Green	FPA
Ian Jerome	FPA
John Goodier	Forensic Science Service

1. Monique agreed to chair the meeting and Penny, being late, was nominated to do the minutes.

2. Minutes of the last meeting were agreed as a true record. There were no matters arising.

3. Accounts and audit were presented by the Chairman. Sheila asked what are we going to do with the current balance. It was pointed out that the membership renewals had acted as a filter for interested parties - only three have not renewed i.e. Cunningham Lindsey, BRE and Essex County Fire and Rescue. John proposed that we leave money in the account against a future event and no fees for next year. This led to the next item:

4. Discussions on the Membership took place. There are also very few Fire Service representatives - we need to promote FIG UK to all of them. One route would be to use Newsflash which goes to all brigades or the ODPM Circular distribution list FINDS has no eFire project - ACTION: Monique will explore possibilities of compiling a list of contacts and information units within UK brigades.

   It was AGREED that we should prepare a Press Release on the history of FIG and encourage people to join; this would go to the brigade contacts and journals such as Fire and the FPA magazine. It was proposed and AGREED that a joining fee of £10 for next year would be the introductory offer to provide a network of contacts.

   ACTION: Monique will draft and circulate a Press Release. Discussion of venues followed and Sheila agreed to explore HSE Buxton for September 2005.

5. FIG UK Letterhead

   ACTION Monique will email it to everyone when her colleagues complete the design. It will need contact details with some flexibility to reflect our admin. Colours to be red and black.

6. InFire Conference 2004 in Australia.

   Amanda reported that Margaret Fuller will be speaking on Freedom of Information Act and record keeping; while she will be giving an overview of the Fire Service Act, Bain etc and the IPDS Framework. Sheila is speaking about Fire Risk assessment with its implications for new ways of working and demands for information. Thus we have three FIG members giving papers. (See also News details below)

7. Fire Information Records

   Wendy reported that there are now no hard copies - everything is electronic. This led to lively discussion about the loss of information and that The Internet is not as effective as one would hope in keeping older material currently available.

   Sheila is passionate about this - she said that some items/documents completely disappear, others are lost because URLs change, and reported that this was discussed at a recent international meeting of Occupational Safety and Health Information experts. One answer by a delegate at the international meeting is to pull into the organisation's own Intranet any items which are of long term value for their own use. Sheila has been looking at databases from content and number of records held each year in the context of Fire Worldwide and is finding that there is a shortfall of new material as journals are not being subscribed to by the database producers and therefore no longer indexed. She reminded the FIG Members that Fire Worldwide still held the old LPC/FPA/BRE legacy database of references going back 70-80 years.

   John suggested that with the externalization of local/central government archives are not being passed to potential competitors who take over the work. Nor can people store information that has no immediate value - it is therefore dumped and lost to the world forever. Stephen reported that BSRIA archive has shrunk as journals are either at a very high level or 'Hello' style. Penny pointed out that there may be a change as with increasing use of NVQ/CPD etc there are now commercial pressures to prove that the knowledge has been gained and is recorded. Stephen countered this by asking if we can justify the space needed to store material. FIG should be putting up a warning signal. Here are pockets of activity to hold onto material e.g. the CIRCA Trust holds information from the construction industry in a Mill - manned by volunteers. Michael Kernan is still campaigning for funds to store fire related material at the college. John added that there is a private member's bill involving the British Library on the preservation of electronic information. We need to redefine the role of the librarian/information specialist, looking at the material used, particularly as distance learning is so popular and students need to be able to get at material. Having identified the problem we need to have a strategy on fire information. One route will be for FIG to respond to the consultation on National Workforce Strategy in the training context. FSC library will be responding in their own right as it affects training of fire brigades. Nigel asked who decides what is kept? Is it the librarians/information specialist? Yes was the response. The Fire Services Inspectorate is looking at information provision - it is rare to find departmental libraries. Jim Mann added that there appears to be a move to having a directorate responsible for everything to do with Fire and Rescue Services - part of the impetus for this is the need under Internal Risk Management for brigades to exchange information - which not all of them wish to do. Basically a management issue. Stephen pointed out that there are similar problems in the energy field ALIB and ASLIB have not yet grasped the nettle, various reasons for the decline not helped by Science Museum losing material. Discussion went round the loop again of the need to promote keeping of information v commercial-in-confidence as information should be available to the industry. ACTION Sheila will draft something - she needs comments as soon as possible preferably 29 September. (NONE received to-date- 4.12.04)

8. Fire and Rescue services Statistics Group. Sheila reported that the group includes members from the World Fire Statistics, ODPM, English Heritage, ABI, UCLAN, LFEPA, DTI (Building Division) and others as necessary. Chairman is Glyn Evans. The group presented a seminar as a pre-event presentation at the FSC Research Conference on 23 November 2004. which included the World Statistics Bulletin people, ODPM research and Glyn about the work of the group with Sheila doing an overview electronically held fire and related information. The major step forward is to publicise the FRSUG and its publications, minutes etc on a new website. This has been compiled by Sheila Pantry Associates Ltd and will be launched shortly and will be shortly hosted by ODPM - most likely url will be www.odpm.gov.uk/frsug - to be confirmed.

9. Fire Worldwide (FWW) Sheila recapped some of the history behind, namely that OSH info availability is in decline. There has been much activity in electronic companies either being merged or buying out databases and then closing down the product e.g. Fire CD. In order to counter the possible loss of Fire CD when TSO stopped production, Fire Worldwide has expanded in the last two years from just holding 7 bibliographic databases to holding extensive collections of full text information - UK and European legislation, range of publications from ODPM, The Fire Protection Association, Health and Safety Executive and a range of statistical and other fire industry related information from worldwide sources. There are new editions of Fire Service Manuals by ODPM are still being finalised to reflect the changes in the fire and rescue services. ODPM circulars and research information etc plus BSI standards. Sheila noted that TI has some core information which is the same as in FWW.

   Sheila went on to make the general point that bibliographic databases coverage is getter lighter and tighter; she is keeping the FPA/LPC/BRE database in Fire Worldwide because of the range of information in it gathered over many years.. Has added the Belgium French language database ANPI. She is hoping to get Australian information as well; already has the US NIOSH documents- since 9/11 the USA is really good at providing first responders information. Sheila is launching a new product OSH Update £250 pa links to full text material. See also News below.

10. Research Marion Barnes outlined her MSc research gained from UCE Birmingham at the start of this year. She has kindly agreed to make an abridged version available to members as published in the College Journal. The project looked at distance learning in British brigades, what information sources there were and the role of the FSC Library. The aim was to identify information centres and services in 2003. Of the 64 data sets collected 47 were the result of questionnaires and 17 from interviews. 18 info units were identified. Of the latter 65% were staffed by females and only 24% from the questionnaires. Implications for IPDS and to meet the needs of off site students e.g. HE/DLS/courses at UCLAN. She has just started on PhD to take the project further. Congratulations to Marion were expressed by all. Wendy added that Berks has 5PCs on each station so staff can access the internet, she is training them how to do it.

11. An enjoyable Christmas lunch, arranged by Sally Walsh took place on Thursday, 2 December.

12. Round Table discussions and contribution raised a number of very interesting items of news. FIGUK Members have already received the full minutes.

13. Date of the next meeting. Wednesday 16 March 2005 at BSRIA.

News items from around the world

Infire Conference: A safe community: the information network, October 2004, Perth, W. Australia

The conference attracted a range of people from all over Australia, Canada, Europe and the USA and had many interesting presentations, updating sessions as well as visits. The Conference Dinner was held at Frasers Restaurant, Kings Park, Perth from where we had beautiful panoramic views looking over the city and river.

The conference looked at the impact of information networking on the wider community. It certainly provided a forum that has strengthened the information networks between information professionals working in the field. The conference sponsors were:

• Fire and Emergency Services Authority of Western Australia (FESA)
• Australasian Libraries in Emergency Services (ALIES)
• Fire Protection Association Australia (FPA Australia)
• Arup Fire Australia
• International network of Fire Information and Reference Exchange (inFire)

The Conference Committee were: Elizabeth Hide (FESA), Jill Don (Queensland Dept of Emergency Services), Lidia Peitrucha (WA Police), Edith Khangure (WA Ambulance and Scott-Andrew Smith (FESA) to whom thanks were given for their work in ensuring that everything went according to plan. The whole event was greatly appreciated by the delegates.

Three of FIGUK members attended and gave papers:

• Amanda Collicutt, Fire Service College on The information role in modernizing the UK Fire and Rescue Services Pt 1
• Margaret Fuller, Fire Service College on "The information Role in modernizing the UK Fire and Rescue Services Pt 2.
• Sheila Pantry on "Fire Risk Assessment and Management Information Provision". Powerpoint Presentation and Full Paper are on www.sheilapantry.com/oshworld/presentations/Fire_Risk_Assessment.pdf and www.sheilapantry.com/oshworld/presentations/Fire_Risk_Assessment.html

The Conference papers have not yet appeared on the inFire web site http://www.infire.org

Other news

RMT welcomes dropping of plan to scrap rail fire-safety regulations

RMT has welcomed the government's decision to drop plans to scrap sub-surface station fire-safety regulations brought in as a direct result of the 1987 Kings Cross fire, following a vigorous campaign by Britain's biggest rail union.

"Tube and rail workers and passengers alike will be enormously relieved that the government has accepted the need to keep these regulations in place," RMT general secretary Bob Crow said recently. "This is excellent news, especially as we approach the 17th anniversary of the Kings Cross fire, in which 31 people lost their lives. Keeping effective fire-safety rules in place is the most fitting tribute to those who died."

"We argued that scrapping minimum standards, allowing management to conduct their own risk assessments and effectively leaving fire-precautions to their discretion would be a recipe for cost-driven corner-cutting. It would have led to a weakening of fire precautions, fewer station staff and more risk to our members and the public."

"Parliament's own Regulatory Reform Committee recommended that the 1989 regulations be kept in place, and the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister has now written to us to confirm that they will now be retained.

"The government says it will draft new guidance on fire precautions in sub-surface stations, and RMT will continue forcefully to make the case for those precautions to be statutory. RMT members will be indebted to John McDonnell, the convenor of the RMT parliamentary group, who brought our concerns to the Regulatory Reform Committee's attention, and to all those MPs who signed Early Day Motion 1721, urging the government to change course," Bob Crow said.

The government's Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2004, as originally drafted, would have repealed the 1971 Fire Precautions Act, and with it the 1989 Fire Precautions (Sub-Surface Railway Stations) Regulations, which were brought in on the recommendation of the Fennell Report into the Kings Cross fire.

www.rmt.org.uk/Templates/Internal.asp?NodeID=95187&int1stParentNodeID=89732

Helping business cut the cost of work-related stress: launch of new management standards

Over 13 million days a year are lost due to work-related stress making it the biggest occupational cause of working days lost through injury or ill-health. An average of 29 days lost per case, costing society about £3.7 billion a year. In 2001/2, over half a million individuals in Britain experienced work-related stress at levels that made them ill.

That is why the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has launched a new approach to help large employers work with their employees to manage the risks from work-related stress.

With input from a range of businesses, professional bodies, unions, and other Government agencies such as ACAS, HSE has developed an approach based on a continuous improvement model featuring a benchmarking tool and to help managers gauge stress levels, compare themselves with other organisations, and work with employees to identify solutions.

The Management Standards are not new regulations. Along with the toolkit, the standards help large organisations meet their existing duty of care and their duty to assess the risk of work-related stress. The standards define the characteristics of an organisation where stress is managed effectively.

The Standards and advice on how to use them are available at www.hse.gov.uk/stress

The Standards, informed by the expert research linking job design to ill health, consist of six main factors that contribute to work-related stress: demands, control, support, relationships, role, change.

The Management Standards were piloted with over twenty organisations before they were made available online for public consultation in May 2004. This material was distributed direct to

managers and employers via a CDrom carried free with editions of selected journals and sent to the top 350 companies.

Examples of good practice are available in The Real Solutions Real People guide, which includes guidance on risk assessment, from HSE books, PO Box 1999, Sudbury Suffolk, CO10 2WA, UK or Tel: +44 (0)1787 881165 or https://books.hse.gov.uk, priced £25.00.

ACAS has produced a booklet 'Stress at Work' giving practical advice on handling stress issues in the workplace. It is available free at https://www.acas.org.uk

Employers or employees can obtain free confidential advice on the ACAS helpline Tel: 08457 47 47 47.

Fire Safety Online

EssentialSkillz, www.EssentialSkillz.com, the award-winning developers of online health and safety course and risk assessment software, have developed Fire Safety Essentials, an online educational programme that aims to change learners attitudes and behaviours in relation to fire safety.

Over 70% of businesses involved in a major fire either do not reopen or subsequently fail within 3 years of fire reminding us that we should be doing all we can to reduce the incidence of workplace fires. These statistics highlight the importance of implementing a fire safety programme in your organisation to prevent fire related injuries and property damage.

Fire Safety Essentials is a 30-minute interactive, online course that covers the training required by the Fire Precautions Regulations 1997, made under the Fire Precautions Act 1971. It is designed to be used as part of a company-wide fire prevention programme to teach employees how to prevent fires in their workplace and the procedures that are to be followed in the event of a fire. Fire Safety Essentials provides companies with a convenient and easy-to-use resource for implementing an effective fire safety programme.

To evaluate Fire Safety Essentials free of charge, simply visit us on the web at www.EssentialSkillz.com

HSE publishes improved guidance on preventing manual handling injuries

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has published revised manual handling guidance helping employers and employees to take sensible steps to reduce injuries.

The new guidance, L23 Manual Handling: Manual Handling Operations Regulations 1992 (as amended) and INDG143 (rev2) Getting to grips with manual handling: a short guide, have been thoroughly revised to take account of improved knowledge of the risks from manual handling and how to avoid them. But the essential messages about reducing risks remain the same.

Getting to grips is a short, free booklet aimed particularly at smaller businesses and which is also suitable for supervisors, safety representatives and individual workers.

Almost a third of all industrial injuries are caused by manual handling accidents. And they are part of a much larger problem: an estimated 1.1 million people in Britain suffer from work-related musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs), including those caused by manual handling. MSDs account for around half of all work-related ill health. As a result of MSDs an estimated 12.3 million working days were lost in 2002/2003. In 1995/1996 MSDs cost society £5.7 billion.

Elizabeth Gyngell, Head of HSE's Better Working Environment Division, said "This guidance forms part of the Health and Safety Commission's Priority Programme on musculoskeletal disorders. By following the guidance, preventive action can be taken quite easily in most workplaces and need not be costly. Indeed it is likely to be far more expensive for employers and their insurers to ignore the risks from manual handling which may lead not only to compensation claims, but also to costs arising from sickness absence and reduced productivity."

The revision of the guidance shows the important role of the research programme on musculoskeletal disorders which HSE funds. The new guidance takes account of:

• Research by the Institute of Occupational Medicine on good handling technique (The principles of good manual handling: Achieving a consensus, RR097 available on HSE's website at www.hse.gov.uk/research/rrhtm/index.htm or from HSE Books)
• A review by HSE's Health and Safety Laboratory of risks associated with pushing and pulling of heavy loads (to be published as an HSE research report later this spring).

Further musculoskeletal research projects that will be available this year include studies of risk perception of musculoskeletal disorders, the effective management of upper limb disorders by occupational health professionals, and the link between stress and musculoskeletal disorders.

Copies of L23 'Manual handling: Manual Handling Operations Regulations 1992 (as amended) Guidance on Regulations, ISBN 0 7176 2823 X, price £8.95, are available from HSE Books, PO Box 1999, Sudbury, Suffolk, CO10 6FS, UK | Tel: +44(0) 1787 881165 | Fax: +44 (0)1787 313995

Copies of INDG143 (rev2) 'Getting to grips with manual handling: a short guide', ISBN 0 7176 2828 0 for priced packs of 10, individual copies free, also from HSE Books. www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/indg143.pdf

EUROHSE 2004 Conference: Health in the Workplace

A range of delegates from as far as Hong Kong, Poland, Sweden, Taiwan and other countries were brought up to date by the EUROHSE 2004 Conference that was held on Wednesday 10 and Thursday 11 November 2004, at the Royal National Hotel, Russell Square, London.

EurOHSE 2004 conference provided key points for future activities for all those responsible for securing good standards of health and safety in the workplace, and excellent networking opportunities. The two-day conference had a wide range of sessions on a number of themes:

• European actions and initiatives
• Fitness for Work
• 2004 European Year of Construction including fire safety and behavioural safety
• Preparedness and business continuity

The programme line-up of eminent speakers with backgrounds in government, industry, research and education were chaired on Day 1 by John Howard, Chief Executive, RoSPA

• Paul Glyn, Advisor for the European Commission (EC) Working Environment Antenna Brussels will give a Mid-term evaluation of the European Commission's Adapting to change in work and society: a new Community Strategy on health and safety at work 2002-2006
• European's Agency's Actions and Initiatives - a UK view; - Malcolm Darvill, Health and Safety Executive
• Jan Blok, Manager Inspection of Construction Sites, Dutch Labour Inspectorate, The Netherlands spoke about The SLIC Inspectors' Actions and Initiatives in the construction industry in Europe International Association Labour Inspection
• The gender workplace health gap in Europe was discussed by Laurent Vogel, Trade Union Technical Bureau, Brussels
• Fitness for work: overview of UK actions was discussed by Elizabeth Gyngell, Health and Safety Executive
• Ava Fine, A2 Consulting spoke about Tackling Drugs and Alcohol together. Stressed out at Work was discussed by Carole Spiers, Carole Spiers Group

Day 2 Chaired by Professor Peter Waterhouse

• 2004 Year of Construction Safety in Europe.
  Current priorities in Construction health and safety was discussed by Philip White, Health and Safety Executive Head of Construction Sector
• The need for Fire Safety in the European Workplace was clearly presented by Dennis Davis, CBE - International Committee for the Prevention and Extinction of Fire (CTIF) and formerly HM Chief Inspector of Fire Services, Scotland
• Behavioural Safety - Options, Controversies and International Differences - the Need for a Systematic but Flexible Approach was discussed by Dr Tim Marsh - co-founder and Managing Director of Ryder-Marsh and is Europe's leading expert in behavioural safety.
• How The Journey Towards Zero Accident Plateau was achieved was detailed by Axel Wenblad, Senior Vice President Sustainability, Skanska, Sweden
• Les Moseley, University of Coventry, UK, Director of the Coventry Centre for Disaster Management urged the need for Business Preparedness and Continuity and discussed the implications
• Lena Perenius, present Director at the Brussels-based Cefic (European Chemical Industry Council) with the responsibility for Cefic's activities on Health, Safety and the Environment and for implementation of existing and new legislation on chemicals spoke on "Cefic work and in particular practical implications of REACH implementation at the workplace" and
• Laurence Waterman, President of the Institution of Occupational Safety and Health and Chairman Sypol talked about "Managing staff and their health offsite".

From the end of November the conference website www.eurohse2004.com will contain Links to the speakers' PowerPoint presentations and/or notes.

If you are interested in attending EurOhse2005 to be held in London in November 2005 send your name to be kept up-to-date with developments to:

Stephen Whitehurst, EurOhse2005, Angel Business Communications Ltd, 34 Warwick Road, Kenilworth CV8 1HE, Warwickshire, UK | Tel: +44 (0) 1926 512424 | Fax: +44 (0) 1926 512948 | email: stephen@angelbc.co.uk

OSH UPDATE: new Internet based service from
Sheila Pantry Associates Ltd

Want to keep up-to-date in worldwide occupational health, safety, hygiene, road safety, water safety, environment trends and the latest information? Do budget constraints not allow you to buy all the journals, newsletters and documents that contain the latest information? Can't afford the time to search for the latest information, legislation and standards? No staff to search for this information? And no time yourself to spend hours searching for information?

Then a new, very affordable Internet based service OSH UPDATE, from Sheila Pantry Associates Ltd is the answer for you.

Powered by Head Software International's Headfast/Discovery Internet publishing software*, OSH UPDATE will be launched in the Autumn 2004 and updated monthly. It contains a number of bibliographic databases from worldwide authoritative sources such as the UK Health and Safety Executive HSELINE, UK Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA), US National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), Canada Ryerson University, the International Labour Office CIS Health and Safety Centre, European Union legislation and other legislation sources and OSH standards specifications including those from the British Standards Institution.

OSH UPDATE records will have links to the full text where possible

OSH UPDATE will expand - we are continuing to make agreements with other well-known information producers around the world and these databases will also be included. As well as the latest information many reference sources go back 80 or more years and so a valuable tool for researchers.

This new aggregation of databases will contain thousands of relevant references with abstracts or keywords and will keep you and your colleagues alerted to hot topics such as the health risks of nanotechnology, corporate killing and corporate social responsibility, bioterrorism, management of road risks, preparedness and business continuity.

The title price for a single user via the Internet will be GBP250.00 / US$ 450.00 per year - less than 68 pence / 1.2 dollars per day.

The price reflects our aim to bring health and safety guidance, advice, research, journal articles, papers, standards to the attention of health and safety practitioners and managers, researchers, trade union safety representatives, occupational physicians, information specialists in industry, colleges and universities, government staff, inspectors, university and college safety directors, university and college lecturers and those in training - at a cost that is affordable and a service that is time efficient.

If you are interested in taking up this service on trial please complete the OSH UPDATE Interest Form, or contact us to ask further questions, e.g. multi-user prices or consortium prices.

Sheila Pantry OBE BA FCLIP, Sheila Pantry Associates Ltd, 85 The Meadows, Todwick, Sheffield S26 1JG, UK | Tel: +44 (0) 1909 771024 | Fax: +44 (0) 1909 772829 | Email: sp@sheilapantry.com | www.sheilapantry.com | www.oshworld.com | www.shebuyersguide.com

Electronic Products: Environment Plus | Fire Worldwide | OSH Ireland | OSH UPDATE

* Headfast/Discovery is being used for important bibliographic and full text information services on the Internet by other publishers including CERAM Research, Ellis Publications, Inspec, Nielsen BookData, Oxmill Publishing and TWI.

DIARY OF EVENTS

30-31 March 2005 - Fire and explosion issues on oil and gas onshore plants
Contact: Martin Homer, The Steel Construction Institute, Silwood Park, Ascot, Berkshire SL5 7QN, UK | Tel: + 44 (0)1344 623 345 | Email: fabig@steel-sci.com | www.fabig.com

14-16 September 2005 - Structures and Extreme Events
Lisbon, Portugal. Organized by the International Association for Bridge and Structural Engineering (IABSE). Themes: Natural disasters, man-made events (fire, explosions, impacts, etc.) and human errors (mismanagement, design mistakes, defective material, equipment malfunction, etc.)
Contact: IABSE Lisbon 2005, Organising Committee, c/o LNEC, Ave. Brasil 101, 1700-066 Lisbon, Portugal | Tel: +351 21 844 3260| Fax: +351 21 844 3025 | Email: iabse.lisbon2005@lnec.pt
or: ABSE Secretariat, ETH Hönggerberg, 8093 Zürich, Switzerland | Tel: +41 1 633 2647 | Fax: +41 1 633 1241| Email: secretariat@iabse.org | www.iabse.org